Spare power for the BlackBerry has always been one of the advantages that a BlackBerry can offer because it was easier to find a compatible charger, and it doesn't take long to charge.

If you don't understand the opening statement, then you probably lived in your own bubble when the buildup wars happened between smartphone manufacturers of 2007-2012

We knew when the first iPhone came out they had this very very proprietary charging port and charging code. Fast forward to the latest iPhone 5, they are still using a proprietary port and cord. Nothing changed.

When Samsung poached one of the iPhone designers, Samsung went down the same route that iPhone did. They made their chargers so iPhone look-alike that the only thing that separated both designs was the layout if the bridge, or in the crudest sense, the layout of the cleavage and butt crack on the connector ports.

Fast forward to present, Samsung adopted the more universal micro USB standard, but if you are still stuck with the older Samsung devices as many others are, failure to bring your own cord and charger may mean a difference of life and sure death, figurative and literally speaking.

BlackBerry back then used the mini USB (as opposed to the micro USB used today) and for a very good reason. Their batteries were designed to be powered via the USB, and the batteries were designed to be charged as often as possible and as any time as possible, as opposed to other batteries that relied on the usual full charge full deplete cycle. If there was anything that BlackBerry did not publicly admit, it was the fact that it was designed to be like that, like what a wall hugger should, but before they can claim the title of wall huggers the iPhone users were already claiming that, irrespective whether they did or not, because they would really need to plug in all the time, and it was advised not to charge the iPhone above 60/70. %

As usual, opportunists saw a real market for power supply, portable, or rapid. The rise of power bank era was only accelerated when Android users found to their dismay that despite the phones had rapid chargers and external batteries, the fundamental 2 issues were never solved, that is to have an acceptable battery life and a means to charge their spare batteries without resorting to third party battery chargers, which may or may not be questionable in terms of quality.

As of note, the only BlackBerry 10 device to have suffered serious rants about battery life is the z10. The z30, q5 and q10 never suffered this perception that the battery is weaker, except the occasional BBOS using trolls who believe that BBOS should be only way to go.

However, what BlackBerry has always done, and did, no taking chances, is the inclusion of a BlackBerry battery bundle charger.

Except in the case of the battery bundle charger by BlackBerry, it will always be much more desirable and better compared to whatever power bank that you can get. Why?

First of all, it still uses a BlackBerry battery. That means if you bought an original battery from BlackBerry, it can be put into a battery bundle charger, if the battery that came along with the charger needs to be replaced. Furthermore, you can always check the health of the battery reliably by putting the battery into the BlackBerry 10 device, and then run the virtual expert program which is again, free for BlackBerry. By BlackBerry.

Some people who travel a lot especially using airlines will argue that carrying battery bundles are not allowed, and therefore they are only restricted to a the battery in the phone, and a spare one. As much as I wanted to call the point moot for 2 very obvious reasons, that as long as your cellular network is turned off, you will have much better battery life even if the only thing you did was to game the entire time in the plane, and secondly, the restrictions to powering up a handset even on airplane mode still applies in many countries. The point does have its merit, but my original point that it is difficult to assess the health, authenticity and condition of the power bank, especially ones with dubious claims of having 20k mAh worth of juice, etc.

Secondly, the charger bundle is designed with function and performance in mind. To illustrate this point I will bring you to the benefits of using a BlackBerry power bundle vs a power case vs a power bank.

1. A BlackBerry power bundle can be chain-linked to another power bundle and also the BlackBerry device as well. I am not aware of how many can be linked together, but I am very well aware that people have successfully chain linked 2 charger bundles with a BlackBerry z10 and have all of them charged full within 3 hours. Not a bad feat considering that 1800x3 would equate into 5400mAh combined, and a similar power bank would take more than that to have it fully charged, especially one with repetitive use, and does not hold charge as much as possible.

Furthermore, as I have repeated, the batteries are very replaceable, and it does not take long for the battery in the charger bundle to transfer all of its power to the one in the depleting z10, so you don't end up looking like an idiot who just time travelled back to the 80s lugging a Motorola handset with the battery pack the size of a briefcase attached to it.

The thing with a power case is that it is supposed to marry the best of both worlds, in the sense that it too has a huge capacity, and has the ability to charge both the phone and the battery at the same time.
However like all battery cases and external batteries out there in existence, the archilles heel exists in the form of "shock therapy ". Power cases are designed with the idea that it it should protect the phone with the benefit of added juice right when you need it. However the problems presented by this is when you have two separate power source, the IC chip needs to be recalibrate all the time. Not mentioning, if the lithium ion components in the charger case leaks or loses its ability to charge, (which can happen very easily over a few use, or in this case improper depletion of battery) then you will understand that the phone will die first before the battery does because it cannot remember the exact charge every time you charge and discharge it over. This is especially even more true for power banks and power cases because it needs to remember how much power it has held, and it is very easy to overwrite that resulting in a faulty charge, where it says 100% but you don't get half the charge, or it says 100% but you get a sudden drop down and the phone dies at 30% even though the battery does have more charges because the IC refuses to believe that it has more charges left in it.

What I have written up to this point Is simple.
1. BlackBerry has its own charger bundles that you should take advantage of over third party designs.
2. BlackBerry has a better phone designed with the idea of having the charger bundle as a companion accessory. Others don't have, it comes only as an afterthought. That is why sales people would refer to 3rd party chargers.
3. Even without the charger bundle, in event you want to charge the phone, it is very likely that your phone will find a suitable dock / port and the correct charger, than a competitor device. And still survive.

(13-04-2014, 08:37 PM)badiyee Wrote: Spare power for the BlackBerry has always been one of the advantages that a BlackBerry can offer because it was easier to find a compatible charger, and it doesn't take long to charge.

If you don't understand the opening statement, then you probably lived in your own bubble when the buildup wars happened between smartphone manufacturers of 2007-2012

We knew when the first iPhone came out they had this very very proprietary charging port and charging code. Fast forward to the latest iPhone 5, they are still using a proprietary port and cord. Nothing changed.

When Samsung poached one of the iPhone designers, Samsung went down the same route that iPhone did. They made their chargers so iPhone look-alike that the only thing that separated both designs was the layout if the bridge, or in the crudest sense, the layout of the cleavage and butt crack on the connector ports.

Fast forward to present, Samsung adopted the more universal micro USB standard, but if you are still stuck with the older Samsung devices as many others are, failure to bring your own cord and charger may mean a difference of life and sure death, figurative and literally speaking.

BlackBerry back then used the mini USB (as opposed to the micro USB used today) and for a very good reason. Their batteries were designed to be powered via the USB, and the batteries were designed to be charged as often as possible and as any time as possible, as opposed to other batteries that relied on the usual full charge full deplete cycle. If there was anything that BlackBerry did not publicly admit, it was the fact that it was designed to be like that, like what a wall hugger should, but before they can claim the title of wall huggers the iPhone users were already claiming that, irrespective whether they did or not, because they would really need to plug in all the time, and it was advised not to charge the iPhone above 60/70. %

As usual, opportunists saw a real market for power supply, portable, or rapid. The rise of power bank era was only accelerated when Android users found to their dismay that despite the phones had rapid chargers and external batteries, the fundamental 2 issues were never solved, that is to have an acceptable battery life and a means to charge their spare batteries without resorting to third party battery chargers, which may or may not be questionable in terms of quality.

As of note, the only BlackBerry 10 device to have suffered serious rants about battery life is the z10. The z30, q5 and q10 never suffered this perception that the battery is weaker, except the occasional BBOS using trolls who believe that BBOS should be only way to go.

However, what BlackBerry has always done, and did, no taking chances, is the inclusion of a BlackBerry battery bundle charger.

Except in the case of the battery bundle charger by BlackBerry, it will always be much more desirable and better compared to whatever power bank that you can get. Why?

First of all, it still uses a BlackBerry battery. That means if you bought an original battery from BlackBerry, it can be put into a battery bundle charger, if the battery that came along with the charger needs to be replaced. Furthermore, you can always check the health of the battery reliably by putting the battery into the BlackBerry 10 device, and then run the virtual expert program which is again, free for BlackBerry. By BlackBerry.

Some people who travel a lot especially using airlines will argue that carrying battery bundles are not allowed, and therefore they are only restricted to a the battery in the phone, and a spare one. As much as I wanted to call the point moot for 2 very obvious reasons, that as long as your cellular network is turned off, you will have much better battery life even if the only thing you did was to game the entire time in the plane, and secondly, the restrictions to powering up a handset even on airplane mode still applies in many countries. The point does have its merit, but my original point that it is difficult to assess the health, authenticity and condition of the power bank, especially ones with dubious claims of having 20k mAh worth of juice, etc.

Secondly, the charger bundle is designed with function and performance in mind. To illustrate this point I will bring you to the benefits of using a BlackBerry power bundle vs a power case vs a power bank.

1. A BlackBerry power bundle can be chain-linked to another power bundle and also the BlackBerry device as well. I am not aware of how many can be linked together, but I am very well aware that people have successfully chain linked 2 charger bundles with a BlackBerry z10 and have all of them charged full within 3 hours. Not a bad feat considering that 1800x3 would equate into 5400mAh combined, and a similar power bank would take more than that to have it fully charged, especially one with repetitive use, and does not hold charge as much as possible.

Furthermore, as I have repeated, the batteries are very replaceable, and it does not take long for the battery in the charger bundle to transfer all of its power to the one in the depleting z10, so you don't end up looking like an idiot who just time travelled back to the 80s lugging a Motorola handset with the battery pack the size of a briefcase attached to it.

The thing with a power case is that it is supposed to marry the best of both worlds, in the sense that it too has a huge capacity, and has the ability to charge both the phone and the battery at the same time.
However like all battery cases and external batteries out there in existence, the archilles heel exists in the form of "shock therapy ". Power cases are designed with the idea that it it should protect the phone with the benefit of added juice right when you need it. However the problems presented by this is when you have two separate power source, the IC chip needs to be recalibrate all the time. Not mentioning, if the lithium ion components in the charger case leaks or loses its ability to charge, (which can happen very easily over a few use, or in this case improper depletion of battery) then you will understand that the phone will die first before the battery does because it cannot remember the exact charge every time you charge and discharge it over. This is especially even more true for power banks and power cases because it needs to remember how much power it has held, and it is very easy to overwrite that resulting in a faulty charge, where it says 100% but you don't get half the charge, or it says 100% but you get a sudden drop down and the phone dies at 30% even though the battery does have more charges because the IC refuses to believe that it has more charges left in it.

What I have written up to this point Is simple.
1. BlackBerry has its own charger bundles that you should take advantage of over third party designs.
2. BlackBerry has a better phone designed with the idea of having the charger bundle as a companion accessory. Others don't have, it comes only as an afterthought. That is why sales people would refer to 3rd party chargers.
3. Even without the charger bundle, in event you want to charge the phone, it is very likely that your phone will find a suitable dock / port and the correct charger, than a competitor device. And still survive.

This piece is timeless. I enjoyed reading it. Because it is so detailed, I will have a second read.

Haha. I'm happy that you liked it. I wasn't happy with PRIV going internal battery, but I guess it's a way to cut costs. I just realised that boot up times for a fully loaded BlackBerry and fully loaded Android isn't very much different